The Cherry Tree
by Bondy
Summary: As Lee realizes his feelings for Sakura, things take a turn for the worse. What will happen when Lee's old friend, Meilin steps into the picture? Rated R for language, and mentions of suicide and lemon in later chappys.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: heya all people out there in fanfic world! this was my very first peice of longer writing, so im sharing it with everyone! Its one of my older peices of work, but im working on new ones. this is set in an alternate universe than the origional series took place in. just a warning. please R&R

Disclaimer: i do not own any characters in this story, blah de blah, all i own is the plot

Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Friend

Pissed off at the world, Sakura Avalon had tried to take her own life. She was now in the local hospital, because her ex-bitchy roommate had found her bleeding in the bathtub in their dorm. Now she owed her life to her roommate, Maddison Taylor. Sakura had hated Maddison with all her being up until about two days ago when Maddison had found her in the bathroom, hanging onto life by a thread. Oddly enough, Sakura wasn't minding at all that Maddison was now sitting by her bed, stroking her hand as though she were a small child.

"Why were you trying to kill yourself anyway, Sakura?"

Sakura stared blankly at the wall, trying to compose her thoughts.

Maddison asked the question again.

"Well," mumbled Sakura, weakly, "my mom is dead, my dad hates me, my little brother does drugs, my dad doesn't care about me, I can't find a boyfriend…"

"Were you going to continue?"

"I'm too tired. Sorry. Maybe later."

"Oh. Do you want me to leave? So you can sleep?"

"Only if you want to. I kinda enjoy your company now."

"Ok." Maddison got out her book and started reading.

"My mom always used to read to me when I was little…"

"Hmm… well if you really want to hear about the Russian Revolution…" Maddison joked with a smirk.

Sakura giggled weakly at this, "Well I guess not then."

A few minutes later, Sakura had drifted off to sleep.

In her sleep, she relived the horrible experience of the car accident in which her mother had died. She even heard the horrible sound of metal screeching against metal. She remembered it not being so much the feeling, as the sound that hurt. Sakura and her mother were both hospitalized after this. They were in the same room, in intensive care, and she couldn't sleep that night, because the pain was too much for her to handle at the young age of seven. She had heard her mother's heart monitor go flat, and she had started sobbing.

Sakura was awakened by Maddison shaking her lightly.

"Sakura! Why are you crying?"

Sakura reached up and wiped furiously at the tears that had betrayed her emotions. "It was just a bad dream. Don't worry about it."

"I have the right to worry when you start crying in your sleep. People don't usually do that!"

"You're right. Sorry." An ashamed look crossed Sakura's face as she blushed a shade of pink.

Maddison just stared blankly at Sakura. No one had ever been so nice to her since… well… ever! She had always been a misfit among the other kids in grade school because of her love for her camcorder, with which she would tape just about anything.

Sakura interrupted her thoughts. "Maddison, can I ask you something?"

"Um… depends, I guess."

"Well, I was just wondering why you were always so mean to me even though you had… no friends."

"Oh… um… awkward question. I guess I was always just really jealous of the way you could just walk up to someone and make instant friends with them."

"Wow," Sakura was a bit surprised at the other girls answer. _She _had always been jealous of Maddison because of her silky black hair that had just the right amount of curl to it, and her icy blue eyes, which had the ability to lure any guy into her arms. She had to suffer with short, mousy brown hair, which had always been up in pigtails since her grade school days, and her eyes of a plain green colour. She had never had one admirer in her life, and had made friends with guys instead of dating them. She was what you'd call a tom boy, and she hated every bit of it.

"You were jealous of me too, weren't you, Sakura?"

"Um… how'd you kn-"

"It's written all over your face!" interrupted Maddison, who giggled as she saw Sakura's mouth open in an attempt to explain the current situation.

"Eh… how did you know that? I'm not that predictable, am I!?"

"Well, not really. Your face just kinda had jealousy written all over it."

"Oh. I guess I'm gunna have to do something about that, hey? But yeah. I am kinda jealous of you. I mean, you are just _so_ pretty!" Sakura whined.

"Well how 'bout we make a deal then. I'll teach you how to meet guys without becoming friends, if you teach me how to make friends." Maddison had utmost excitement in her voice.

Sakura thought about this for quite some time, but then said, "I guess, but I don't know how you could make _me_ attractive to guys… and as for you… you already know how to make friends. Just do what you did for me!"

Maddison laughed lightly. "Well you may not know it, but Lee has been looking at you differently since Christmas! And _how _am I going to save another person from dying? That was a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

"That's not what I meant… what I meant was actually talking to the people. It might help. Waaait a sec… did you say Lee… as in Lee, my best friend, Lee? Um… I cant go out with _him!!_ He's been my friend since forever! That would be totally weird!"

'I never said you had to go out with him, I was just trying to make you see that even though _you _don't think of yourself that highly, some people think that you are very pretty. You don't really have to be pretty on the ouside if you're pretty inside."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: hiya again. this is yet another chapter in my story. i dont feel the need to display a disclaimer again, as it would just waste space, and it is the same as was posted on the first page. please R&R. ta for now**

Chapter 2

A few days later, after her blood transfusion, Sakura was released from the hospital. Maddison had been with her almost every hour, and they had grown very close over that time. They found out that they had a lot more in common than they had expected. It even turned out that they had the same blood type, AB positive, which was where Sakura had gotten her blood, for no one in her family cared enough to help her.

After Maddison's speech on inner beauty, however, Sakura's view on life had changed a bit. She no longer cared about what her family thought of her. She would now dedicate everything she did to her dead mother, because she had been the only one who had cared.

"What 'cha thinking about?" Maddison asked on their long walk back to the their senior students boarding school.

"Pretty much about how badly I hate my dad. He never comes through for me, you know."

"Happy thoughts you got there, Avalon." said Maddison sarcastically, "On the bright side though, you never have to go back to your hell hole of a house again…"

"What are you talking about!? I still have to go back on holidays!!"

"Hah… nope! My mom says that we're kinda adopting you! You can come to our house on holidays and stuff!"

"Really adopting me like?"

"Not really. Just so you don't have to go home kinda thing."

"Wow! Really? NO WAY!" a very excited Sakura said with a huge beaming smile.

"Yup! You can be, like, my sister!"

"I dunno 'bout that, but we will be able to see each other every day on holidays."

"Why cant we be like sisters?" Maddison sounded really sad at Sakura's last remark.

"Um… why?" a confused Sakura asked.

"Erm… well I'm an only child, and it kinda sucks not being able to have someone around all the time to talk to, tell my secrets to, tease, that kinda stuff. You have your brother, Tori, but I don't have anyone."

"Oh… well we see each other everyday any ways… I don't know why you're so upset. Roommates remember?"

"Heh heh… oh yeah." Maddison laughed sheepishly, "Um, I kinda forgot about that…"

"No, really?"

With this, Maddison hooked her arm through Sakura's and they walked the rest of the way back to the school, arm in arm.

* * *

Three days later, after a long weekend, Sakura woke to the annoying ring of her alarm clock.

"Shit!" she shrieked as she rushed to get ready for her classes. She had slept through her alarm and was now going to be late for her first class… again! Maddison always got up at 6 am, and knew that Sakura hated to be woken that early. She was _not _a morning person.

Getting ready in a record five minutes, Sakura was ready and eating her breakfast on her way out the door.

Despite this new record, however, she was still ten minutes late for her class.

"Miss Avalon, I thought we had had this talk before. You were not to be late for my class again or it would be necessary to kick you out." Ms. Ruley said in her snotty English accent.

Sakura flinched and stopped dead in her tracks. "Wh-What? You cant do that to me, Ms. Ruley!"

"I can, and I will. Besides. You should have thought about that before you came to class late." The teacher smirked at how much this was upsetting the girl standing in front of her.

Just then, a brown haired someone stood up in the back of the class. "Hey, Ms. Ruley! Leave her alone! What did she ever do to you to make her deserve that kind of treatment?"

It was Lee, brown eyes flaring with voiced anger.

"Do you wish to leave the class too, Mr. Shaoran?"

"Yeah, sure. Anything's gotta be better than spending another minute in this class with a crappy ass teacher that makes life shit for my best friend…" Lee stalked quickly down from his seat to stare down his nose at the teacher, who was a good foot shorter than him. "You have got to be the _biggest _bitch I have _ever _met."

With this, he stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door behind him.

Sakura stared blankly after Lee for a few seconds before regaining her wits, as she headed out the door after him, flipping off the teacher as she went.

"Did you really flip her off? I didn't think you had the guts to do that…" He stated as he entered a fit of laughter.

Sakura joined in seconds later, giggling madly. "I didn't think I did either! That was the best thing I've done in a long time."

At this, she surprised Lee with a hug of appreciation.

Grinning at his long awaited success, Lee pulled her closer into him.

"Lee Shaoran, you are the best!" Sakura's voice was full of passion as she said this.

Lee blushed profusely and the look of shock on his face heightened. Could she possibly like me in _that _way? he thought. They had been friends since grade one, but these feelings were brand new. They had started only last Christmas, when he had seen a whole different side of her; a stunning inner beauty, which matched equally to her outer looks.

Sakura blinked when she saw Lee's eyes flaming with a different emotion that she couldn't quite place. She knew that she should be able to recognize it, as she had seen it in Maddison's eyes only days before.

Lee could tell that Sakura was deep in thought, so he waved his hand in front of her eyes, trying to bring her back from space, and tilting his head ever so slightly to the left so that his longish hair fell over part of his eye.

Her breath caught slightly, as she realized how attractive her childhood friend had become. His hair, now about jaw length, although still the same rich shade of brown, now suddenly caught her attention in a different way. The way he was currently looking at her, with those chocolate brown eyes, sent tingles all through her body.

His attention was now drawn to her lips, full and slightly parted. Oh, how he wanted to kiss those lips, but he knew how inappropriate that would seem at this time.

The bell interrupted their staring fest, signalling that they should start heading to their next class.

"Um… I should go, I guess. I don't want to be late again…" Sakura gave Lee another quick hug, before turning to head down the hall, blushing at the fact that she and Lee had been staring at each other for close to an hour.

Sakura ran off down the hall, leaving a very confused Lee in her wake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: same old stuff about not owning any of the characters... only the plot, etc.**

**A/N: hiya all.... sorry for the, er... rather late update, i have been rather busy lately studying to get my L! ... not so exciting really, but i gotta learn to drive sometime... sooner rather than later. well enough useless blah, here it is people. Chappy 3!! oh and thankies for the review from sfiresakura!**

Chapter 3 - Cherry Blossom

When Sakura retired to her dorm that night, she was surprised to see that Maddison wasn't there. Her new friend should have been back by now.

"Hmm…" Sakura thought out loud, "I wonder where she has gotten to."

Just at that moment, Sakura's stomach growled loudly.

"Better go get some food, then. She better be here when I get back…"

With this, she bounded down the stairs to the common kitchen, which she shared with all the others in her dorm.

"Hey, Sakura! Over here!" a familiar voice called from the den.

"Maddison! You worried me half to death! Why weren't you in our room?"

She just chuckled, "Oh, sorry. But…" Maddison said with a hint of mystery in her voice.

"But what? Tell me!"

Maddison laughed loudly, and then in an even louder voice she said, "Stop your whining. Come outside and I'll show you. You go first."

As Sakura walked toward the back doors, she noted that all of the outside lights were off, where as they were usually on.

She stepped out of the hall into the ominous black cloaked outdoors, and stood there. Behind her, Maddison flipped the light switches on.

"SURPRISE!" came a chorus of voices from all around her.

With a genuine look of shock blended with confusion, Sakura replied, "Thanks, guys. I'm really flattered and all, but you do all know that my birthday isn't for another two weeks, right?"

"Yeah, actually," Maddison and Lee laughed together at their joke.

"It just adds to the surprise of it all!" Lee added with a smile.

Sakura looked around for the first time since 'the surprise' and noticed something very touching. There were decorations of pink cherry blossoms everywhere, which made sense, since it was spring time. But the touching part came in the fact that cherry blossoms were her mothers favourite flower.

Lee noticed a single tear slip down Sakura's cheek.

"What, Sakura?" asked Lee, "Is there something wrong?"

"N-no… its just that the flowers… they remind me of my mom."

Lee thought about this for a while, edging closer to Sakura. He remembered hearing once that Sakura meant cherry blossom. That must be it then. "Your mom named you after the cherry blossoms, didn't she?"

"Yes. How did you…" Sakura broke off and stared quizzically at Lee. How did he know this, when she hadn't told anyone ever?

"Well, common sense actually. Your name means cherry blossom."

"Yeah. It was her favourite flower." she almost whispered.

Then, experiencing one of her extreme mood swings, Sakura jumped up and shouted gleefully, "Oh my God! Is that chocolate cake?! Mmmm!"

Forgetting all that had just occurred, she rushed over to the cake and dug out a huge slice.

"Mnffff mnnffff mfffffn!"

"Say what now?" Lee was having a hard time understanding the Sakura that had a mouth full of cake.

After swallowing, she repeated, "This is sooo good!"

"Yeah, its awesome. I think Maddison made it."

"Really? Wow! Compliments to the chef!"

It was so useless trying to make small talk with her. He knew that he would never in a million years be able to tell her what he wanted to, so why was he even bothering talking to her at all, if he wouldn't be able to have what he wanted in the end. He had to try though. Even if he wouldn't be able to come right out and say it.

"Well, um… I'm gunna head up to my room now I guess. Er. I kinda wanted to talk to you for a sec, if that would be okay."

"Well yeah, I guess. Shoot…"

"Actually, I was thinking more in a private type setting…"

"Mmm. Right. Um, well we could go up to my room. Maddison's out here, so I don't think she'd mind…"

"Nkay, well, after you."

Lee ushered Sakura into the dorms and lead her up the stairs.

Once at her door, Sakura placed the key in the lock and turned. The door opened easily, and they stepped inside the rather smallish room.

Sakura sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her.

He came and sat in said spot, looking very nervous.

"So, what were you wanting to talk about?"

"Um, you know what? I forgot!!" he laughed an obviously fake laugh and put on an equally fake smile. "Gotta go! See ya round I guess…"

With this, he laughed nervously and bolted from the room.

Sakura looked around for Lee, confused at why he ran away when he so obviously wanted to tell her something, but Lee was nowhere to be found.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: same old craperoo.... i dont own characters only the plot..**

**A/N: hiya all.. thankies for reviewing my story.. i honestly didnt expect any reviews at all! so heres another chapter... a little femmy slash in this one.. so if you are uncomfortable with that... i suggest not reading this chappy.. i also upped the rating to R for that...**

Chapter 4

In the days to follow, Lee could not be found anywhere. He wasn't in any of his classes, and Sakura couldn't even find him in his dorm room after classes.

Sakura walked into Lee's room and asked his roommate, Zack, "Do you know where Lee got to?"

"Nope. No idea." Was the reply.

Lee was missing.

* * *

"Sakura?" Maddison had walked into their room to find Sakura sobbing uncontrollably.

"Ju-just leave me alone, Maddison! I don't need your pity." an angered Sakura hissed through fits of tears.

Maddison, a bit shocked at Sakura's response, sat down on her bed anyway. This was how Sakura would have acted before they became friends. Something must really be wrong, and Maddison was determined to find out what.

"Sakura, what's wrong?"

"I thought I told you to go away!"

"I'm not going to, though." Maddison stated as she started rubbing soothing circles on Sakura's back.

Sakura just continued crying, although she slowly calmed down. "Why didn't you go away when I told you to?"

"Good friends never give up."

"You're right, you know… I really should still be out there searching for Lee, not sitting here crying…"

"Wait… Lee? He told me that he was going home to visit his parents."

Sakura got a deeply hurt look on her face. "He is so DEAD!!!" she screamed as she jumped up.

"No, Sakura. Stay. He'll come back soon and you can yell at him then." as she said this, she pulled Sakura back down onto the bed.

"Fine. It'll probably satisfy me more to yell at him in person, anyway." She sat back down with a pout playing on her lips.

She suddenly noted hot breath on her neck and the side of her face. Looking over at her friend, she noticed that their faces were all the sudden very close together, and it didn't feel all that weird…

Maddison placed her hand gently on Sakura's cheek, "Sakura, tell me why you were crying. Please."

Stammering, she replied, "I'm… not sure I'm ready to tell anyone yet."

As she brought her face closer to Sakura's, "You know, I won't tell anyone. Promise."

"I dunno…" She looked confused, wavering between her two choices. Their lips were only centimetres apart.

"Look. Trust me on this, okay? You'll feel better if you tell someone."

"I'll need a hell of a lot of persuasion… It's just not as easy as you make it out to be."

Maddison closed the remaining distance between her and Sakura, bringing their lips to meet. To her surprise, Sakura did not pull away in disgust, but instead kissed back with an increasing need.

Maddison brought Sakura's bottom lip into her mouth, nibbling at it lightly. This, pleasurably, brought forth a moan from Sakura's throat.

As Maddison pulled away, she said with a seductive voice, "How's that for persuasion?"

"I'm still not sure I'm ready to tell you…" a heavily breathing Sakura answered.

"Just keep in mind that I'll be here for you, kay?"

"Mmm…"

With that, Maddison went to the door and was about to leave.

"Maddison?"

"Yes?"

"Um, if you go by the store, can you pick up some chocolate ice cream for me?"

"Sure."

* * *

Two days later, Sakura was ready to talk.

"Hey, Maddison?"

"Yeah, what?"

"I'm ready now."

"Huh?"

"To talk about why I was crying."

"Oh! Okay, shoot."

"Um, yeah. You know Lee?"

"Yeah, he's coming back tonight."

"Really?" Sakura's face brightened at this knowledge.

"Yeah. You were saying…"

"Right. Well, if I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone… at all!"

"Yeah, sure. You can totally trust me." Then Maddison got a funny look on her face, as if she just realized something. "Um, Sakura? Do you like Lee back or something?"

Sakura blushed a deep red. "… only I'm not sure if it's only a 'like.' he makes me feel, so, I don't know. Set apart from everyone else. Special. I know it's not just a crush, but…"

Sounding a bit depressed, Maddison finished, "You don't know if his feelings are the same, right?"

"Yeah. That's why I don't want you to tell him, or anyone else. There was a day, before he left, that I thought he was going to tell me he had feelings for me, but then he just ran away."

"I don't know what to say, Sakura. But I think that you should tell Lee. You might end up with him." she said this with even more down than before.

"Yeah… but I could also end up with nothing." Sakura gave a sad sigh, and a tear slid down her cheek to leave a wet spot on the sheets of her bed. "Enough about me anyway. Why so sad?"

"Well -"

A knock on their door interrupted Maddison's words.

With an apologetic look shot in her direction, Sakura got up to open the door hesitantly.

"LEE!!!" she shrieked, as she tackled him with a bear hug.

Lee just stood there, looking shocked and confused.

Maddison took the opportunity to explain. "She was worried out of her mind while you were gone."

"I was not!" Sakura said defiantly, but her face got pink, betraying the truth.

"I was just visiting my family, Sakura. But I met up with an my old friend, Meilin. And guess what?"

A girl with silky raven hair, not unlike Maddison's, only straight, stormed down the hallway with a death look on her face, her brown eyes flaming with sparks of hatred.

As she stalked up to Sakura, who was still hugging Lee, her eyes narrowed. She hissed in a voice only Sakura could hear, "Stay away from _my _boyfriend."

Sakura jerked away from Lee, shooting him a quizzical glance. She did not with to start a fight. As she stepped away, the girl known as Meilin, stepped up to Lee, clinging to him as she put on a fake smile. "So Lee, introduce me to your friends."

Sakura flinched at the sickeningly sweet tone in the girl's voice that had sounded so vicious just a few moments before.

"Sure, Meilin. This is Sakura, ant this is Maddison."

Maddison extended her hand, which Meilin took and shook kindly. "So nice to meet you, Maddison. I hope we can be friends." she glanced sideways at Sakura and said sourly, "Sakura."

"So now that we've met Meilin, what were you going to tell us before?" Maddison inquired to Lee.

"Oh yeah. Meilin is joining out school this semester. Isn't that awesome?"


End file.
